Indoor/Outdoor Pillows

Well, happy to say boating season in upon us! We are settling into our new digs and learning what does what and what goes where. In the few weekends we have spent at the dock, one thing I have been wanting is a few indoor/outdoor fabric pillows for the flybridge area. As soon as we saw this boat, before the sale was even complete, I called "shotgun" on this pretty sweet little lounge chair.

Since comfort is my goal, I planned to just pick up a few pillows at Target or Lowes, etc., with outdoor material to make the space more functional. However, I was disappointed with the fabric options out there and even more disappointed with the price. I took a little trip to my local Joann Fabric store and, lo and behold, not only was the indoor/outdoor fabric 50% off, so were the pillow inserts! Score. I was able to pick up all that I needed, including zippers and cord for the piping for around $35 for one 20"x20" pillow and one 18"x18" pillow. Target was selling ONE large outdoor pillow for $39.99. 

I started by measuring my pillow to make sure of the dimensions. For the 20" pillow, I cut two squares of my fabric at 21"x21" to allow for a 1/2" seam. 

I measured out slightly more cord than I needed for the piping (4 sides x 20" for a total of 80" plus about 4-6" to spare.) I then used my piping foot on my sewing machine to make navy blue covered piping to go with the fabric I chose.

I followed the directions on this YouTube video to apply the welting/piping to the pillow front. 

I wanted to add a hidden zipper so the covers could be taken off and washed or changed at any time in the future. I won't go into detail about how to sew in the zipper, the woman in this YouTube video does a great job of walking you through how to do it. She also shows you how to finish off the pillow once the zipper is in. 

I found her video to be incredibly helpful and detailed. 

Here are the finished products:

 I loved the bright floral print with the blue zig-zag. Since the two fabric didn't necessarily "go together," I added the same navy piping to the floral pillow to pull it all together. 

I'm very happy with the outcome. Hopefully you can be inspired too, and save a few bucks in the process!